Official
Proponent - NO to the Single Transferable Vote -
May 2009 Referendum

NEWS
RELEASE Sunday January 11, 2009

NO
BC-STV Campaign Society chosen by province as official NO
proponent on Single Transferable Vote in May 2009 referendum;
group successfully fought STV in 2005 vote as "KNOW
STV"

VANCOUVER
- The group that successfully opposed the Single Transferable
Vote or STV electoral system in the 2005 referendum has
been chosen by the province as the official NO proponent
for a second vote in the May 12, 2009 referendum.

The
decision means that the NO BC-STV Campaign Society - or
NO STV in short - will receive $500,000 in provincial funding
to run a campaign opposing the Single Transferable Vote,
says NO STV president Bill Tieleman.

"We
are very pleased with the decision of the Attorney-General's
Ministry to give our organization the responsibility for
running a vigorous educational campaign to defeat the STV
electoral system proposal, which we believe would be disastrous
for British Columbia," said Tieleman, a communications
consultant and newspaper columnist.

"STV
is a confusing and complicated electoral system that would
take away accountable local elected representatives and
replace them with regional MLAs in ridings with as many
as seven members," Tieleman said. "STV also gives
unequal weight to votes in different ridings, fails to deliver
true proportional representation, especially for rural voters
and would make it harder for independent and third parties
to elect MLAs."

Tieleman
said that "KNOW STV", the group that successfully
fought STV in the 2005 referendum, has been renamed the
NO BC-STV Campaign Society, a registered non-profit group.

NO
STV Secretary-Treasurer David Schreck said the problems
with the Single Transferable Vote explain why it is such
a rare and obscure electoral system.

"STV
is only used as a national government voting system in two
small, island countries - Malta and Ireland," said
Schreck, a former NDP MLA. "STV has been around since
the 1920s in both those countries but no other country has
adopted it in over 80 years - why would British Columbians
want such a bizarre electoral system with so many problems?"

NO
STV's other directors include former Social Credit cabinet
minister Bruce Strachan, former BC Citizens Assembly representative
Rick Dignard and former Green Party Vancouver school trustee
Andrea Reimer, now a Vision Vancouver city councilor, Schreck
said. Other active members include former provincial deputy
minister Bob Plecas, former NDP cabinet minister Anne Edwards,
former Citizens Assembly member Jyoti Gill, Trinity Western
University political science professor John Redekop and
business owner Paul Gill.

Tieleman
said NO STV is completely non-partisan in its approach,
noting that in the 2005 provincial referendum it brought
together BC Liberal Party, New Democratic Party and Green
Party supporters to oppose STV, and its position was endorsed
by former Social Credit premier Bill Bennett and former
NDP premier Dave Barrett, who both warned of the dangers
of STV before the vote.

The
Single Transferable Vote was proposed as an electoral system
by the BC Citizens Assembly in late 2004. The referendum
rules, which remain the same for the 2009 vote, require
a 60% majority of all valid votes in the referendum to be
in favour, plus the referendum also requires that 60% of
all constituencies in BC vote in favour of STV by a simple
majority.

In
May 2005 STV received 57.7% of the votes cast, failing to
reach the required 60%. The BC Liberal government subsequently
decided to hold a second referendum.